Christmas Programs, Round 2

Yesterday at 1:00 was Laughter's Christmas program, her first ever since she's just in Kindergarten, and she was SOOOOO excited.  She was hilarious before the program, jumping up and down and waving like crazy.  Her program was the Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades, and all of them wore their pajamas, so they were pretty adorable.  After the program, Mom, Dad and I got back in the car and came back home so I could head to Pippi's and Tink's program at 5:30.  Their school program was Monday and I wasn't able to go, but at least I got to go to their church program.  Pippi was the narrator and Tink was Joseph and they both did awesome jobs.  All my nieces are awesome; I'm such a proud auntie.  I got an even better treat in that Tink and Pippi came over for a play date today so I got to spend some more time with them, which I always love.  They were (as always) cracking me up with their goofy antics.  Pippi asked if I would play hide and seek with them, and I had to laugh at myself because as soon as I got into my hiding place I totally had to pee.  It never fails, the same thing happened when I was a kid.  It makes hiding difficult when all I can think of is my bladder.

Anyhoodle, tonight's shoes are nativity themed in honor of all of this week's Christmas programs:

This is so pretty.  Why do the shoe people want me stepping on the baby Jesus, the Holy Family, and the Wise Men?  So rude. 

I think this one is really sweet, but what is hovering behind the Holy Family?  Are those supposed to be angels?  Because they look like bull's heads or possibly devil heads.  Shoe fail.

 

Also pretty.  Also, see comments above on the first pair.

I had to rotate the picture so you could see the image on the shoe better, but then the overall shoe looks funky.  I like the cartoon, though, and it makes for a cute, quirky shoe.

I think this effort at nativity shoes went much better than the last time I went looking, but I'm still not convinced that nativity shoes are necessary, or even appropriate.

Nativities

It's Christmas day, so instead of shoes, we're going to talk about Jesus.  Well, not talk so much as look at.  For tonight's post we'll be taking a tour of my mom's nativity scenes.

Mom made this one, and I love the patterns.  The characters are so cute.  But dang Jesus is a big baby.  Poor Mary!

 

I'm not sure where she got this one, but Mom's joke is that there is a Noah's ark toy somewhere missing a zebra and giraffe.  Why else would a nativity have a zebra and giraffe?!

 

This is the one the kids can play with.  We don't have any tiny kids right now, but in years past we used to find pieces of this scene all over the place.  I can't believe we still have them all.  Last year Laughter had a whole plot going where the kings had kidnapped baby Jesus and Mary had to go kick some butt to get him back.  That kid kills me.

 

This one is my favorite.  The angels aren't part of the set, but The Bean and I decided to add them anyway.  Hmmm....come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the angels for this set are at my house.  I bought them, I did NOT steal them from my mother!

 

I love this one, too.  The Holy Family used to be in an egg shaped thingie with an opening and a light, but the egg shaped thingie broke a long time ago.  I didn't break that, too, did I Mom?

This Holy Family is a candle stopper that is on a candle under the jingle bell tree.

Another one Mom painted.  I have the same set that I painted, but mine is nowhere near as good as this.   Mine looks like a 2nd grader painted it.

Mom-made.  This is the same Holy Family pattern as in the first one, and here you get to see the angels that go with this set since they aren't visible in the first set.

I even put one in the bathroom this year!

This one is a tea set.  The sheep are cups and the angel's and shepherd's heads come off.  Which is a little creepy when you think about it.

This sampling doesn't include everything.  The stained glass nativity Mom and Dad made years ago doesn't come out anymore because there isn't a place big enough to display it anymore.  Or the nativity tree skirt Mom made.  Or Grandma's set that is under the tree to Mom's room.  OR all of the various ornaments on various trees that are nativity-themed.

Finally, here is my confession.  I torment my mother at Christmas.  Many years ago I was being a dork and switched out various figures from nativities and had them go visit other nativities.  You know, so they could hang out.  Mom was not appreciative, so of course I had to do it every year, and then I taught the nieces.  This year I was sooooo good and didn't move anything until last night when I switched around all of the baby Jesuses. As you can see, I put them back where they belonged today before I took pictures.  Sorry (not really), Mom.  I wouldn't give you crap if I didn't love you!

Merry Christmas!

Silent Night, Holy Night

It's Christmas Eve, and there are no children at my parents' house (a rare occurence), so it's a calm and quiet evening for us.  Flower, Pippi, Tink, and Laughter were all here for part of the day, so it was loud chaos there for awhile.  The brother made dinner for us, and I've done a little baking, but other than that we're all just hanging out being introverted and doing our own things.  In the spirit of that first Silent Night (which most likely was anything but silent), I'm going to give you some Christmas shoe art, and keep all the blah blah to myself.

Merry Christmas, my friends.  May the light of Christ bring you joy and peace.

 

Happy Birthday, Grandma

As a kid we would always spend December 23-26 at my mom's parents' house.  The 23rd is  my grandma's birthday, so we'd start by celebrating and eating angel food cake.  (it was really the only dessert Grandma liked, despite forcing 12 different kinds down the rest of us)  So today the seester, Flower, and Laughter drove me back to the parents' and are now staying the night.  The brother came over for dinner and then we all had angel food cake and whipped cream in honor of Grandma, who would have been 97 today.  I also saved the last Christmas tree for today as it has Grandma's ornaments on it.

This is the tree in Mom's room.  Part of the ornaments are hers and part are Grandma's.  I helped Mom decorate it this year and it was fun to pull out the old, glass ornaments that I remember from so many Christmases.

 

This was also Grandma's, although I'm not sure how much it was out.  I vaguely remember it, but not terribly well.  From a distance it looks pretty good, as you can't see how terribly cheesy the plastic figures are.  I don't care if they're cheesy, though, they just help remind me of  how much I loved Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's.

I really didn't expect to find any vintage, glass ornaments that were shoes, but I was surprised.  There are actually quite a few out there.

 

Frankly these creep me out.  The shoes are fine.  The face in the last one and the cats in the top 2 are what give me the heebie jeebies.  A cat in a shoe, OK, but a baby's face in a shoe?  Why?

 

I like these 2 a lot better, especially the color of  the second one (duh).

Somewhat less disturbing for some reason.

Cute!  And look, the ornament hook is shaped like a Christmas tree!

Fun ornament, but definitely not a cute shoe that I would covet in real life.

This one reminds me of Snow White.

I miss my Grandma.  I miss the constancy of the traditions of Christmas at her house.  There are new ones, of course, and they are lovely and wonderful, but the nostalgia of the Christmases of my childhood will always be there.  

Love you, Grandma.

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve!  I've been at church for 10 1/2 hours so far today, with another 4 or so to go.  We'll get back to shoes tomorrow, but for tonight.  We celebrate God's light coming into our darkness:

 

 

I now have to get back to finishing tomorrow morning's sermon (and tracking Santa on Google) before the 11:00 service.  May your Christmas be blessed!

 

Christmas Pageant

The Sunday School Christmas Pageant is tomorrow, so this morning was the final rehearsal.  In case you were wondering, I will be playing the role of "Ima Gossip" (unless the kid who is supposed to play the role shows up tomorrow, in which case I just get to watch).  The play will be adorable and lovely tomorrow they always are.  Today the kids were whiny, distracted, wiggly, and kept jumping off the stage.  They always do.  I decided to do an image search for nativity shoes and I'm extremely grateful not much showed up.

 

 

I expected more of this, and while I don't hate this shoe, I'm just not sure the birth of Jesus is something we need to be depicting on our footwear.  I could be absolutely wrong.  (I'm not wrong)

 

What...is...happening...here?  I'm so confused.  Why are they on the stairs?  Why are they surrounded by ugly shoes?  Why?  So many thoughts and questions.

 

OK, these really don't have anything to do with the nativity, but I thought they were sweet.  Who doesn't need this reminder as they stare at their feet?

 

Short and sweet (?) today.  I'm off to get ready for the hubby's Christmas party tonight.  OK, technically it's "our" party as it's at our house, but it's really his baby.  I'm just there to look awkward and do my best to be a hostess (which for me involves a lot of unloading, loading, and running the dishwasher...)